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2001 vs. 2002 Specs

I have been looking for a low mileage Black Z8 for some months now. I have found two that interest me. One is a 2001 and the other a 2002. I'm assuming that I would be better off with the later car but not sure what specific changes were made by BMW. I had a 2000 M5 and a 2002, both daily drivers. The 2000 used a lot of oil which BMW fixed on the later model. The 2002 also had substantial drive train and suspension improvements. Is there any place on the Z8 Board that might give me some information about model year changes? Thanks!

Last edited by buz; December 19th 2007 at 22:25.
Reason: spelling error

If you look at other threads on the forum, you will get much of the information you are looking for. You want to make sure if you buy the 01, it has a build date of 12/00 or later. That takes care of the VANOS issue on the 00's and earlier 01's. There was also a small design change in the convertible top operation starting around car 61750. That would make it a late 02. Basically, earlier cars had problems with the strings breaking inside the convertible top that could lead to premature wear on the top. I had the strings replaced on my 01 and did them with the strings from the last body style 3 series convertible. They have aluminum fasteners and the strings should not break again. The only other major change I am aware of is a new electrical system, but that started with car 61926 and later, making it an 03 model. Hope this helps.

From casual conversation I believe there were 3 major updates made during the production run as mentioned above, but my memory is vague on the exact VIN's.

The first one that addressed the VANOS and piston rings came around car 60750, so in early 01. There were quite a lot of details changes at that time beyond just the motor, like beefier wheel bearings, different mounts, and other odd things like that.

The next big one was was around car 61750, so late-mid '02. I remember being told there were a great many of detail changes, including the new softtop internals, but this was just from casual conversation when I was over in Germany, and I don't have the details to back it up.

The final big one was limited to the electrics, and was done as car was being prepared to share the end of the production run with Alpina. The cars had a totally new electrical BUS, the clearest evidence of which is the switch from CD to DVD nav. (There are only about 150 of these end of run Z8's, the rest were all Alpinas).

Andrew Macpherson

Expert Z8 Inspections, with full support for both Z8 sale and purchases.

Andrew, your recollection on the piston rings doesn't "ring" true with me. My buddy with the 2000 M5 had told me at the time that the piston ring issue had been dealt with by the summer of 2000. I don't think it affected any 2001 cars which began production in Sept of 2000, but then again are we talking about the same issue, I'm not sure.